sshd.8

.\"
.\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
.\"                    All rights reserved
.\"
.\" As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software
.\" can be used freely for any purpose.  Any derived versions of this
.\" software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is
.\" incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be
.\" called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Markus Friedl.  All rights reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell.  All rights reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Theo de Raadt.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" $OpenBSD: sshd.8,v 1.327 2024/09/15 01:19:56 djm Exp $
.Dd $Mdocdate: September 15 2024 $
.Dt SSHD 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm sshd
.Nd OpenSSH daemon
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm sshd
.Bk -words
.Op Fl 46DdeGiqTtV
.Op Fl C Ar connection_spec
.Op Fl c Ar host_certificate_file
.Op Fl E Ar log_file
.Op Fl f Ar config_file
.Op Fl g Ar login_grace_time
.Op Fl h Ar host_key_file
.Op Fl o Ar option
.Op Fl p Ar port
.Op Fl u Ar len
.Ek
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
(OpenSSH Daemon) is the daemon program for
.Xr ssh 1 .
It provides secure encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts
over an insecure network.
.Pp
.Nm
listens for connections from clients.
It is normally started at boot from
.Pa /etc/rc .
It forks a new
daemon for each incoming connection.
The forked daemons handle
key exchange, encryption, authentication, command execution,
and data exchange.
.Pp
.Nm
can be configured using command-line options or a configuration file
(by default
.Xr sshd_config 5 ) ;
command-line options override values specified in the
configuration file.
.Nm
rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal,
.Dv SIGHUP ,
by executing itself with the name and options it was started with, e.g.\&
.Pa /usr/sbin/sshd .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl 4
Forces
.Nm
to use IPv4 addresses only.
.It Fl 6
Forces
.Nm
to use IPv6 addresses only.
.It Fl C Ar connection_spec
Specify the connection parameters to use for the
.Fl T
extended test mode.
If provided, any
.Cm Match
directives in the configuration file that would apply are applied before the
configuration is written to standard output.
The connection parameters are supplied as keyword=value pairs and may be
supplied in any order, either with multiple
.Fl C
options or as a comma-separated list.
The keywords are
.Dq addr ,
.Dq user ,
.Dq host ,
.Dq laddr ,
.Dq lport ,
and
.Dq rdomain
and correspond to source address, user, resolved source host name,
local address, local port number and routing domain respectively.
Additionally the
.Dq invalid-user
flag (which does not take a value argument) may be specified to simulate
a connection from an unrecognised username.
.It Fl c Ar host_certificate_file
Specifies a path to a certificate file to identify
.Nm
during key exchange.
The certificate file must match a host key file specified using the
.Fl h
option or the
.Cm HostKey
configuration directive.
.It Fl D
When this option is specified,
.Nm
will not detach and does not become a daemon.
This allows easy monitoring of
.Nm sshd .
.It Fl d
Debug mode.
The server sends verbose debug output to standard error,
and does not put itself in the background.
The server also will not
.Xr fork 2
and will only process one connection.
This option is only intended for debugging for the server.
Multiple
.Fl d
options increase the debugging level.
Maximum is 3.
.It Fl E Ar log_file
Append debug logs to
.Ar log_file
instead of the system log.
.It Fl e
Write debug logs to standard error instead of the system log.
.It Fl f Ar config_file
Specifies the name of the configuration file.
The default is
.Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config .
.Nm
refuses to start if there is no configuration file.
.It Fl G
Parse and print configuration file.
Check the validity of the configuration file, output the effective configuration
to stdout and then exit.
Optionally,
.Cm Match
rules may be applied by specifying the connection parameters using one or more
.Fl C
options.
.It Fl g Ar login_grace_time
Gives the grace time for clients to authenticate themselves (default
120 seconds).
If the client fails to authenticate the user within
this many seconds, the server disconnects and exits.
A value of zero indicates no limit.
.It Fl h Ar host_key_file
Specifies a file from which a host key is read.
This option must be given if
.Nm
is not run as root (as the normal
host key files are normally not readable by anyone but root).
The default is
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key ,
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
and
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key .
It is possible to have multiple host key files for
the different host key algorithms.
.It Fl i
Specifies that
.Nm
is being run from
.Xr inetd 8 .
.It Fl o Ar option
Can be used to give options in the format used in the configuration file.
This is useful for specifying options for which there is no separate
command-line flag.
For full details of the options, and their values, see
.Xr sshd_config 5 .
.It Fl p Ar port
Specifies the port on which the server listens for connections
(default 22).
Multiple port options are permitted.
Ports specified in the configuration file with the
.Cm Port
option are ignored when a command-line port is specified.
Ports specified using the
.Cm ListenAddress
option override command-line ports.
.It Fl q
Quiet mode.
Nothing is sent to the system log.
Normally the beginning,
authentication, and termination of each connection is logged.
.It Fl T
Extended test mode.
Check the validity of the configuration file, output the effective configuration
to stdout and then exit.
Optionally,
.Cm Match
rules may be applied by specifying the connection parameters using one or more
.Fl C
options.
This is similar to the
.Fl G
flag, but it includes the additional testing performed by the
.Fl t
flag.
.It Fl t
Test mode.
Only check the validity of the configuration file and sanity of the keys.
This is useful for updating
.Nm
reliably as configuration options may change.
.It Fl u Ar len
This option is used to specify the size of the field
in the
.Vt utmp
structure that holds the remote host name.
If the resolved host name is longer than
.Ar len ,
the dotted decimal value will be used instead.
This allows hosts with very long host names that
overflow this field to still be uniquely identified.
Specifying
.Fl u0
indicates that only dotted decimal addresses
should be put into the
.Pa utmp
file.
.Fl u0
may also be used to prevent
.Nm
from making DNS requests unless the authentication
mechanism or configuration requires it.
Authentication mechanisms that may require DNS include
.Cm HostbasedAuthentication
and using a
.Cm from="pattern-list"
option in a key file.
Configuration options that require DNS include using a
USER@HOST pattern in
.Cm AllowUsers
or
.Cm DenyUsers .
.It Fl V
Display the version number and exit.
.El
.Sh AUTHENTICATION
The OpenSSH SSH daemon supports SSH protocol 2 only.
Each host has a host-specific key,
used to identify the host.
Whenever a client connects, the daemon responds with its public
host key.
The client compares the
host key against its own database to verify that it has not changed.
Forward secrecy is provided through a Diffie-Hellman key agreement.
This key agreement results in a shared session key.
The rest of the session is encrypted using a symmetric cipher.
The client selects the encryption algorithm
to use from those offered by the server.
Additionally, session integrity is provided
through a cryptographic message authentication code (MAC).
.Pp
Finally, the server and the client enter an authentication dialog.
The client tries to authenticate itself using
host-based authentication,
public key authentication,
challenge-response authentication,
or password authentication.
.Pp
Regardless of the authentication type, the account is checked to
ensure that it is accessible.  An account is not accessible if it is
locked, listed in
.Cm DenyUsers
or its group is listed in
.Cm DenyGroups
\&.  The definition of a locked account is system dependent. Some platforms
have their own account database (eg AIX) and some modify the passwd field (
.Ql \&*LK\&*
on Solaris and UnixWare,
.Ql \&*
on HP-UX, containing
.Ql Nologin
on Tru64,
a leading
.Ql \&*LOCKED\&*
on FreeBSD and a leading
.Ql \&!
on most Linuxes).
If there is a requirement to disable password authentication
for the account while allowing still public-key, then the passwd field
should be set to something other than these values (eg
.Ql NP
or
.Ql \&*NP\&*
).
.Pp
If the client successfully authenticates itself, a dialog for
preparing the session is entered.
At this time the client may request
things like allocating a pseudo-tty, forwarding X11 connections,
forwarding TCP connections, or forwarding the authentication agent
connection over the secure channel.
.Pp
After this, the client either requests an interactive shell or execution
of a non-interactive command, which
.Nm
will execute via the user's shell using its
.Fl c
option.
The sides then enter session mode.
In this mode, either side may send
data at any time, and such data is forwarded to/from the shell or
command on the server side, and the user terminal in the client side.
.Pp
When the user program terminates and all forwarded X11 and other
connections have been closed, the server sends command exit status to
the client, and both sides exit.
.Sh LOGIN PROCESS
When a user successfully logs in,
.Nm
does the following:
.Bl -enum -offset indent
.It
If the login is on a tty, and no command has been specified,
prints last login time and
.Pa /etc/motd
(unless prevented in the configuration file or by
.Pa ~/.hushlogin ;
see the
.Sx FILES
section).
.It
If the login is on a tty, records login time.
.It
Checks
.Pa /etc/nologin ;
if it exists, prints contents and quits
(unless root).
.It
Changes to run with normal user privileges.
.It
Sets up basic environment.
.It
Reads the file
.Pa ~/.ssh/environment ,
if it exists, and users are allowed to change their environment.
See the
.Cm PermitUserEnvironment
option in
.Xr sshd_config 5 .
.It
Changes to user's home directory.
.It
If
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc
exists and the
.Xr sshd_config 5
.Cm PermitUserRC
option is set, runs it; else if
.Pa /etc/ssh/sshrc
exists, runs
it; otherwise runs
.Xr xauth 1 .
The
.Dq rc
files are given the X11
authentication protocol and cookie in standard input.
See
.Sx SSHRC ,
below.
.It
Runs user's shell or command.
All commands are run under the user's login shell as specified in the
system password database.
.El
.Sh SSHRC
If the file
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc
exists,
.Xr sh 1
runs it after reading the
environment files but before starting the user's shell or command.
It must not produce any output on stdout; stderr must be used
instead.
If X11 forwarding is in use, it will receive the "proto cookie" pair in
its standard input (and
.Ev DISPLAY
in its environment).
The script must call
.Xr xauth 1
because
.Nm
will not run xauth automatically to add X11 cookies.
.Pp
The primary purpose of this file is to run any initialization routines
which may be needed before the user's home directory becomes
accessible; AFS is a particular example of such an environment.
.Pp
This file will probably contain some initialization code followed by
something similar to:
.Bd -literal -offset 3n
if read proto cookie && [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]; then
	if [ `echo $DISPLAY | cut -c1-10` = 'localhost:' ]; then
		# X11UseLocalhost=yes
		echo add unix:`echo $DISPLAY |
		    cut -c11-` $proto $cookie
	else
		# X11UseLocalhost=no
		echo add $DISPLAY $proto $cookie
	fi | xauth -q -
fi
.Ed
.Pp
If this file does not exist,
.Pa /etc/ssh/sshrc
is run, and if that
does not exist either, xauth is used to add the cookie.
.Sh AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT
.Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
specifies the files containing public keys for
public key authentication;
if this option is not specified, the default is
.Pa ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
and
.Pa ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 .
Each line of the file contains one
key (empty lines and lines starting with a
.Ql #
are ignored as
comments).
Public keys consist of the following space-separated fields:
options, keytype, base64-encoded key, comment.
The options field is optional.
The supported key types are:
.Pp
.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
.It
sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com
.It
ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
.It
ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
.It
ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
.It
sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com
.It
ssh-ed25519
.It
ssh-rsa
.El
.Pp
The comment field is not used for anything (but may be convenient for the
user to identify the key).
.Pp
Note that lines in this file can be several hundred bytes long
(because of the size of the public key encoding) up to a limit of
8 kilobytes, which permits RSA keys up to 16 kilobits.
You don't want to type them in; instead, copy the
.Pa id_ecdsa.pub ,
.Pa id_ecdsa_sk.pub ,
.Pa id_ed25519.pub ,
.Pa id_ed25519_sk.pub ,
or the
.Pa id_rsa.pub
file and edit it.
.Pp
.Nm
enforces a minimum RSA key modulus size of 1024 bits.
.Pp
The options (if present) consist of comma-separated option
specifications.
No spaces are permitted, except within double quotes.
The following option specifications are supported (note
that option keywords are case-insensitive):
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Cm agent-forwarding
Enable authentication agent forwarding previously disabled by the
.Cm restrict
option.
.It Cm cert-authority
Specifies that the listed key is a certification authority (CA) that is
trusted to validate signed certificates for user authentication.
.Pp
Certificates may encode access restrictions similar to these key options.
If both certificate restrictions and key options are present, the most
restrictive union of the two is applied.
.It Cm command="command"
Specifies that the command is executed whenever this key is used for
authentication.
The command supplied by the user (if any) is ignored.
The command is run on a pty if the client requests a pty;
otherwise it is run without a tty.
If an 8-bit clean channel is required,
one must not request a pty or should specify
.Cm no-pty .
A quote may be included in the command by quoting it with a backslash.
.Pp
This option might be useful
to restrict certain public keys to perform just a specific operation.
An example might be a key that permits remote backups but nothing else.
Note that the client may specify TCP and/or X11
forwarding unless they are explicitly prohibited, e.g. using the
.Cm restrict
key option.
.Pp
The command originally supplied by the client is available in the
.Ev SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND
environment variable.
Note that this option applies to shell, command or subsystem execution.
Also note that this command may be superseded by a
.Xr sshd_config 5
.Cm ForceCommand
directive.
.Pp
If a command is specified and a forced-command is embedded in a certificate
used for authentication, then the certificate will be accepted only if the
two commands are identical.
.It Cm environment="NAME=value"
Specifies that the string is to be added to the environment when
logging in using this key.
Environment variables set this way
override other default environment values.
Multiple options of this type are permitted.
Environment processing is disabled by default and is
controlled via the
.Cm PermitUserEnvironment
option.
.It Cm expiry-time="timespec"
Specifies a time after which the key will not be accepted.
The time may be specified as a YYYYMMDD[Z] date or a YYYYMMDDHHMM[SS][Z] time.
Dates and times will be interpreted in the system time zone unless suffixed
by a Z character, in which case they will be interpreted in the UTC time zone.
.It Cm from="pattern-list"
Specifies that in addition to public key authentication, either the canonical
name of the remote host or its IP address must be present in the
comma-separated list of patterns.
See PATTERNS in
.Xr ssh_config 5
for more information on patterns.
.Pp
In addition to the wildcard matching that may be applied to hostnames or
addresses, a
.Cm from
stanza may match IP addresses using CIDR address/masklen notation.
.Pp
The purpose of this option is to optionally increase security: public key
authentication by itself does not trust the network or name servers or
anything (but the key); however, if somebody somehow steals the key, the key
permits an intruder to log in from anywhere in the world.
This additional option makes using a stolen key more difficult (name
servers and/or routers would have to be compromised in addition to
just the key).
.It Cm no-agent-forwarding
Forbids authentication agent forwarding when this key is used for
authentication.
.It Cm no-port-forwarding
Forbids TCP forwarding when this key is used for authentication.
Any port forward requests by the client will return an error.
This might be used, e.g. in connection with the
.Cm command
option.
.It Cm no-pty
Prevents tty allocation (a request to allocate a pty will fail).
.It Cm no-user-rc
Disables execution of
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc .
.It Cm no-X11-forwarding
Forbids X11 forwarding when this key is used for authentication.
Any X11 forward requests by the client will return an error.
.It Cm permitlisten="[host:]port"
Limit remote port forwarding with the
.Xr ssh 1
.Fl R
option such that it may only listen on the specified host (optional) and port.
IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing the address in square brackets.
Multiple
.Cm permitlisten
options may be applied separated by commas.
Hostnames may include wildcards as described in the PATTERNS section in
.Xr ssh_config 5 .
A port specification of
.Cm *
matches any port.
Note that the setting of
.Cm GatewayPorts
may further restrict listen addresses.
Note that
.Xr ssh 1
will send a hostname of
.Dq localhost
if a listen host was not specified when the forwarding was requested, and
that this name is treated differently to the explicit localhost addresses
.Dq 127.0.0.1
and
.Dq ::1 .
.It Cm permitopen="host:port"
Limit local port forwarding with the
.Xr ssh 1
.Fl L
option such that it may only connect to the specified host and port.
IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing the address in square brackets.
Multiple
.Cm permitopen
options may be applied separated by commas.
No pattern matching or name lookup is performed on the
specified hostnames, they must be literal host names and/or addresses.
A port specification of
.Cm *
matches any port.
.It Cm port-forwarding
Enable port forwarding previously disabled by the
.Cm restrict
option.
.It Cm principals="principals"
On a
.Cm cert-authority
line, specifies allowed principals for certificate authentication as a
comma-separated list.
At least one name from the list must appear in the certificate's
list of principals for the certificate to be accepted.
This option is ignored for keys that are not marked as trusted certificate
signers using the
.Cm cert-authority
option.
.It Cm pty
Permits tty allocation previously disabled by the
.Cm restrict
option.
.It Cm no-touch-required
Do not require demonstration of user presence
for signatures made using this key.
This option only makes sense for the FIDO authenticator algorithms
.Cm ecdsa-sk
and
.Cm ed25519-sk .
.It Cm verify-required
Require that signatures made using this key attest that they verified
the user, e.g. via a PIN.
This option only makes sense for the FIDO authenticator algorithms
.Cm ecdsa-sk
and
.Cm ed25519-sk .
.It Cm restrict
Enable all restrictions, i.e. disable port, agent and X11 forwarding,
as well as disabling PTY allocation
and execution of
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc .
If any future restriction capabilities are added to authorized_keys files,
they will be included in this set.
.It Cm tunnel="n"
Force a
.Xr tun 4
device on the server.
Without this option, the next available device will be used if
the client requests a tunnel.
.It Cm user-rc
Enables execution of
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc
previously disabled by the
.Cm restrict
option.
.It Cm X11-forwarding
Permits X11 forwarding previously disabled by the
.Cm restrict
option.
.El
.Pp
An example authorized_keys file:
.Bd -literal -offset 3n
# Comments are allowed at start of line. Blank lines are allowed.
# Plain key, no restrictions
ssh-rsa ...
# Forced command, disable PTY and all forwarding
restrict,command="dump /home" ssh-rsa ...
# Restriction of ssh -L forwarding destinations
permitopen="192.0.2.1:80",permitopen="192.0.2.2:25" ssh-rsa ...
# Restriction of ssh -R forwarding listeners
permitlisten="localhost:8080",permitlisten="[::1]:22000" ssh-rsa ...
# Configuration for tunnel forwarding
tunnel="0",command="sh /etc/netstart tun0" ssh-rsa ...
# Override of restriction to allow PTY allocation
restrict,pty,command="nethack" ssh-rsa ...
# Allow FIDO key without requiring touch
no-touch-required sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com ...
# Require user-verification (e.g. PIN or biometric) for FIDO key
verify-required sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com ...
# Trust CA key, allow touch-less FIDO if requested in certificate
cert-authority,no-touch-required,principals="user_a" ssh-rsa ...
.Ed
.Sh SSH_KNOWN_HOSTS FILE FORMAT
The
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
and
.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
files contain host public keys for all known hosts.
The global file should
be prepared by the administrator (optional), and the per-user file is
maintained automatically: whenever the user connects to an unknown host,
its key is added to the per-user file.
.Pp
Each line in these files contains the following fields: marker (optional),
hostnames, keytype, base64-encoded key, comment.
The fields are separated by spaces.
.Pp
The marker is optional, but if it is present then it must be one of
.Dq @cert-authority ,
to indicate that the line contains a certification authority (CA) key,
or
.Dq @revoked ,
to indicate that the key contained on the line is revoked and must not ever
be accepted.
Only one marker should be used on a key line.
.Pp
Hostnames is a comma-separated list of patterns
.Pf ( Ql *
and
.Ql \&?
act as
wildcards); each pattern in turn is matched against the host name.
When
.Nm sshd
is authenticating a client, such as when using
.Cm HostbasedAuthentication ,
this will be the canonical client host name.
When
.Xr ssh 1
is authenticating a server, this will be the host name
given by the user, the value of the
.Xr ssh 1
.Cm HostkeyAlias
if it was specified, or the canonical server hostname if the
.Xr ssh 1
.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
option was used.
.Pp
A pattern may also be preceded by
.Ql \&!
to indicate negation: if the host name matches a negated
pattern, it is not accepted (by that line) even if it matched another
pattern on the line.
A hostname or address may optionally be enclosed within
.Ql \&[
and
.Ql \&]
brackets then followed by
.Ql \&:
and a non-standard port number.
.Pp
Alternately, hostnames may be stored in a hashed form which hides host names
and addresses should the file's contents be disclosed.
Hashed hostnames start with a
.Ql |
character.
Only one hashed hostname may appear on a single line and none of the above
negation or wildcard operators may be applied.
.Pp
The keytype and base64-encoded key are taken directly from the host key; they
can be obtained, for example, from
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub .
The optional comment field continues to the end of the line, and is not used.
.Pp
Lines starting with
.Ql #
and empty lines are ignored as comments.
.Pp
When performing host authentication, authentication is accepted if any
matching line has the proper key; either one that matches exactly or,
if the server has presented a certificate for authentication, the key
of the certification authority that signed the certificate.
For a key to be trusted as a certification authority, it must use the
.Dq @cert-authority
marker described above.
.Pp
The known hosts file also provides a facility to mark keys as revoked,
for example when it is known that the associated private key has been
stolen.
Revoked keys are specified by including the
.Dq @revoked
marker at the beginning of the key line, and are never accepted for
authentication or as certification authorities, but instead will
produce a warning from
.Xr ssh 1
when they are encountered.
.Pp
It is permissible (but not
recommended) to have several lines or different host keys for the same
names.
This will inevitably happen when short forms of host names
from different domains are put in the file.
It is possible
that the files contain conflicting information; authentication is
accepted if valid information can be found from either file.
.Pp
Note that the lines in these files are typically hundreds of characters
long, and you definitely don't want to type in the host keys by hand.
Rather, generate them by a script,
.Xr ssh-keyscan 1
or by taking, for example,
.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
and adding the host names at the front.
.Xr ssh-keygen 1
also offers some basic automated editing for
.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
including removing hosts matching a host name and converting all host
names to their hashed representations.
.Pp
An example ssh_known_hosts file:
.Bd -literal -offset 3n
# Comments allowed at start of line
cvs.example.net,192.0.2.10 ssh-rsa AAAA1234.....=
# A hashed hostname
|1|JfKTdBh7rNbXkVAQCRp4OQoPfmI=|USECr3SWf1JUPsms5AqfD5QfxkM= ssh-rsa
AAAA1234.....=
# A revoked key
@revoked * ssh-rsa AAAAB5W...
# A CA key, accepted for any host in *.mydomain.com or *.mydomain.org
@cert-authority *.mydomain.org,*.mydomain.com ssh-rsa AAAAB5W...
.Ed
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Pa ~/.hushlogin
This file is used to suppress printing the last login time and
.Pa /etc/motd ,
if
.Cm PrintLastLog
and
.Cm PrintMotd ,
respectively,
are enabled.
It does not suppress printing of the banner specified by
.Cm Banner .
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.rhosts
This file is used for host-based authentication (see
.Xr ssh 1
for more information).
On some machines this file may need to be
world-readable if the user's home directory is on an NFS partition,
because
.Nm
reads it as root.
Additionally, this file must be owned by the user,
and must not have write permissions for anyone else.
The recommended
permission for most machines is read/write for the user, and not
accessible by others.
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.shosts
This file is used in exactly the same way as
.Pa .rhosts ,
but allows host-based authentication without permitting login with
rlogin/rsh.
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.ssh/
This directory is the default location for all user-specific configuration
and authentication information.
There is no general requirement to keep the entire contents of this directory
secret, but the recommended permissions are read/write/execute for the user,
and not accessible by others.
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Lists the public keys (ECDSA, Ed25519, RSA)
that can be used for logging in as this user.
The format of this file is described above.
The content of the file is not highly sensitive, but the recommended
permissions are read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
.Pp
If this file, the
.Pa ~/.ssh
directory, or the user's home directory are writable
by other users, then the file could be modified or replaced by unauthorized
users.
In this case,
.Nm
will not allow it to be used unless the
.Cm StrictModes
option has been set to
.Dq no .
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.ssh/environment
This file is read into the environment at login (if it exists).
It can only contain empty lines, comment lines (that start with
.Ql # ) ,
and assignment lines of the form name=value.
The file should be writable
only by the user; it need not be readable by anyone else.
Environment processing is disabled by default and is
controlled via the
.Cm PermitUserEnvironment
option.
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Contains a list of host keys for all hosts the user has logged into
that are not already in the systemwide list of known host keys.
The format of this file is described above.
This file should be writable only by root/the owner and
can, but need not be, world-readable.
.Pp
.It Pa ~/.ssh/rc
Contains initialization routines to be run before
the user's home directory becomes accessible.
This file should be writable only by the user, and need not be
readable by anyone else.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
This file is for host-based authentication (see
.Xr ssh 1 ) .
It should only be writable by root.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/moduli
Contains Diffie-Hellman groups used for the "Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange"
key exchange method.
The file format is described in
.Xr moduli 5 .
If no usable groups are found in this file then fixed internal groups will
be used.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/motd
See
.Xr motd 5 .
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/nologin
If this file exists,
.Nm
refuses to let anyone except root log in.
The contents of the file
are displayed to anyone trying to log in, and non-root connections are
refused.
The file should be world-readable.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/shosts.equiv
This file is used in exactly the same way as
.Pa hosts.equiv ,
but allows host-based authentication without permitting login with
rlogin/rsh.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
These files contain the private parts of the host keys.
These files should only be owned by root, readable only by root, and not
accessible to others.
Note that
.Nm
does not start if these files are group/world-accessible.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
These files contain the public parts of the host keys.
These files should be world-readable but writable only by
root.
Their contents should match the respective private parts.
These files are not
really used for anything; they are provided for the convenience of
the user so their contents can be copied to known hosts files.
These files are created using
.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
Systemwide list of known host keys.
This file should be prepared by the
system administrator to contain the public host keys of all machines in the
organization.
The format of this file is described above.
This file should be writable only by root/the owner and
should be world-readable.
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Contains configuration data for
.Nm sshd .
The file format and configuration options are described in
.Xr sshd_config 5 .
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/ssh/sshrc
Similar to
.Pa ~/.ssh/rc ,
it can be used to specify
machine-specific login-time initializations globally.
This file should be writable only by root, and should be world-readable.
.Pp
.It Pa /var/empty
.Xr chroot 2
directory used by
.Nm
during privilege separation in the pre-authentication phase.
The directory should not contain any files and must be owned by root
and not group or world-writable.
.Pp
.It Pa /var/run/sshd.pid
Contains the process ID of the
.Nm
listening for connections (if there are several daemons running
concurrently for different ports, this contains the process ID of the one
started last).
The content of this file is not sensitive; it can be world-readable.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr scp 1 ,
.Xr sftp 1 ,
.Xr ssh 1 ,
.Xr ssh-add 1 ,
.Xr ssh-agent 1 ,
.Xr ssh-keygen 1 ,
.Xr ssh-keyscan 1 ,
.Xr chroot 2 ,
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr moduli 5 ,
.Xr sshd_config 5 ,
.Xr inetd 8 ,
.Xr sftp-server 8
.Sh AUTHORS
OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
created OpenSSH.
Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
Niels Provos and Markus Friedl contributed support
for privilege separation.